The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) has launched an environmental legal arm, known as the Land, Air, Water and Species (LAWS) Unit.
The Unit is expected to provide environmental legal expertise to advance the strategic objectives of the EWT.
Although there is an existing Wildlife and Law Project, established in 2019, to address wildlife legal and governance frameworks, the newest initiative is expected to focus on Land, Air, Water and Species.
EWT’s Eleanor Momberg, said “our work also bridges the divide between law and people, through our LAWS Website, and we will continue to make environmental law more accessible and understandable as well as effective in meeting the needs of South Africans.”
Ashleigh Dore, the LAWS Unit Manager, said “enabling law and policy as well as effective implementation, compliance, and enforcement of environmental law are critical to the realisation of the environmental right and other human rights contained in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.”
The LAWS Unit is funded by the Lewis Foundation, the British High Commission, the Embassy of Finland, Christo Reeders Attorneys, Sylvania SA (Pty) Ltd, USAID through the WWF-South Africa Khetha Programme and the US Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
Picture: UP